[6] The city name was derived from the French term for the nearby rapids, which were called Les Saults de Sainte Marie.

Whereas the modern saut means simply "(a) jump", sault in the 17th century was also applied to cataracts, waterfalls and rapids.

This resulted in such place names as Grand Falls/Grand-Sault, and Sault-au-Récollet on the Island of Montreal in Canada; and Sault-Saint-Remy and Sault-Brénaz in France.

Anishinaabe 1668–1671 Kingdom of France 1671–1763 British Empire 1763–1783  United States 1783–present For centuries, Oc̣eṭi Ṡakowiƞ (Dakota, Lakota, Nakoda), or Sioux, people lived in the area.

Trader Nicolas Perrot helped attract the principal chiefs, and representatives of 14 Indigenous nations were invited for the elaborate ceremony.

The French officials proclaimed France's appropriation of the immense territory surrounding Lake Superior in the name of King Louis XIV.

[8] In the 18th century, the settlement became an important center of the fur trade, when it was a post for the British-owned North West Company, based in Montreal.

He married a high-ranking Ojibwe woman named Ozhaguscodaywayquay, the daughter of a prominent chief, Waubojeeg.

The Johnstons entertained a variety of trappers, explorers, traders, and government officials, especially during the years before the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States.

After the War of 1812, a US–UK Joint Boundary Commission finally fixed the border in 1817 between the Michigan Territory of the US and the British Province of Upper Canada to follow the river in this area.

[10] As a result of the fur trade, the settlement attracted Ojibwe and Ottawa, Métis, and ethnic Europeans of various nationalities.

Early ships traveling to and from Lake Superior were portaged around the rapids[11] in a lengthy process (much like moving a house) that could take weeks.

During this time, the city proper experienced a far greater level of snowfall than the farmlands past the canal and riverfront due to lake-effect snow.

This caused the 1437th MRBC National Guard local armory to be mobilized for disaster relief in order to remove hundreds of tons of snow which effectively blockaded people within their own homes.

[19] On average, only two out of every five years reaches 90 °F (32 °C), while there are 85.5 days annually where the high remains at or below freezing and 26.5 nights with a low of 0 °F (−18 °C) or colder.

This autumn maximum in precipitation, unusual for humid continental climates, owes to this area's Great Lakes location.

In autumn, the lakes are releasing their stored heat from the summer, making them warmer than the surrounding land, and increasingly frequent and strong polar and Arctic air outbreaks pick up warmth and moisture during their over-water passage, resulting in clouds and instability showers.

Marie is also a gateway to Lake Superior's scenic north shore through its twin city Sault Ste.

"Sault High" houses a variety of successful varsity sports teams, such as hockey, wrestling, baseball, and basketball.

Channel 8.3 was previously the science fiction network Comet until being replaced by Charge!, which is also operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Marie include Lake Superior State University Athletics and the Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL).

The team plays its home contests at Taffy Abel Arena (4,000 seats) on LSSU's campus and is one of the most decorated programs in NCAA hockey history.

In total, the Lakers have made 11 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament appearances.

The Men's program won overall GLIAC regular season titles in 2014–15, 2013–14, 1995-1996 (Tournament Champion) and also claimed the north division crown in 2008–09.

Both Men's and Women's squads play their home games in the Bud Cooper Gymnasium within the Norris Center.

Marie is the home of the International 500 Snowmobile Race (commonly called the I-500), which takes place annually and draws participants and spectators from all over the U.S. and Canada.

County Highway H-63 (or Mackinac Trail) also has its northern terminus in the city and extends south to St. Ignace and follows a route very similar to I-75.

However, the city hosts tugs, a tourist passenger ferry service, and a Coast Guard station along the shoreline on the lower (east) side of the Soo Locks.

Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the rapids in the St. Marys River via the American Soo Locks.

Foreign ships (termed salties) are smaller and can exit the Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean.